• Agenda

Minutes of Meeting of the Highland and Western Isles Valuation Joint Board held in the Council Offices, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Tuesday, 16 January 2007 at 10.30 a.m.

 

 

Mr J H Green in the Chair

 

Preliminaries

 

1.              Apologies for Absence

 

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr A Milne, Mr L Fraser and Mr A Gordon of the Highland Council.

 

2.              Minutes of Previous Meeting held on  23 November 2006

 

The Minutes of the Meeting of the Board held on 23 November 2006 had been circulated and were APPROVED.

 

3.           Revenue Expenditure 2006/07 – Monitoring Statement

 

There had been circulated Report No. VAL1/07 dated 8 January 2007 comprising a statement on Revenue Expenditure and Income for the period to 31 December 2006 together with a statement by the Assessor and Electoral Registration Officer.  The report showed actual net expenditure of £1,722,000 as against anticipated expenditure for the period of £1,738,000.  However, due to exceptional advertising and Appeal Committee expenses, the projected year end position was that there would be a £12,000 overspend.

 

The Board NOTED the position.

 

4.           Revenue Estimates 2007/08

 

There had been circulated Report No. VAL2/07 by the Assessor and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) comprising the draft estimates of expenditure and income for 2007/08 and a draft requisitions statement prepared jointly by the Assessor and ERO and the Treasurer.  The proposed budget for 2007/08 amounted to £2,542,155, representing an increase of 4.49% on the 2006/07 budget.  In addition, as previously reported, an additional £80,000 had also been provided by the Scottish Executive to meet the new statutory duties arising from the Electoral Administration Bill. 

 

Items of significant increase from the 2006/07 budget were highlighted, together with the reasons for the additional provision.  In particular, reference was made to the relocation of the Dingwall Office premises and the Assessor and ERO informed Members of details relating to the finalisation of the proposed lease.  There was a projected completion date of March 2007, but any transfer of equipment etc would have to take into consideration the lead-up to the election on 3 May 2007.  If the office move had to be postponed until after the election, discussions would take place with the developer with a view to any rental being delayed until physical entry was achieved.  Tribute was also paid to the service provided over the years by staff from the existing premises.   It was recognised that the budget exceeded GAE, but this was a situation which had existed for a number of years and could be partly attributable to the effect of the Electoral Administration Bill monies.

 

The Board AGREED:-

 

i.             a revenue budget for 2007/08 of £2,542,155 with an additional £80,000 for the requirements arising from the Electoral Administration Bill; and

ii.           that the requisition to be levied on each of the Constituent Authorities in 2007/08 be as follows:-

 

The Highland Council                        £2,333,998

Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar                £   288,157

                                                              Total     £2,622,155

 

5.           Fee Proposals for Audit Scotland

 

There had been circulated Report No. VAL3/07 dated 9 January 2007 by the Treasurer which outlined the fee proposals from Audit Scotland in respect of the year ended 31 March 2007.  The budget provision for audit fees for 2006/07 had been £7,800 but the indicative charge was £7,400, taking into account a decision by HM Revenue and Customs to allow the Accounts Commission to recover part of the input VAT relating to local government audit work.  This decision had also resulted in a one-off rebate of £620 in respect of 2004/05 and 2005/06 fees.

 

The Board NOTED the reduction in the Audit Scotland fee for 2006/07 and APPROVED the estimated audit fee of £7,400.

 

6.              Departmental Report

 

There had been circulated Report No. VAL4/07 by the Assessor and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) advising on the current position of the main activities of the Department.  Since the previous meeting of the Board, the Department had been concerned with electoral registration and ongoing maintenance and appeal clearance work in connection with the valuation roll and council tax list. Speaking to his report, the Assessor and ERO made the following comments:-

 

Electoral Registration

 

Despite the software problem reported to the Board’s last meeting, it had been possible to publish the Highland register on 1 December 2006 on the new boundary format.  Work was continuing on the revised polling districts in the Western Isles and it was intended that the registers on the new boundaries there would be republished on 1 February 2007.  In relation to the doorstep canvass, initial impressions were that, despite it taking place during inclement weather, a considerable amount of fresh information had been gathered.  Although it would take time to analyse, it was anticipated that a more accurate register would be produced.  Given the increase in Polish workers in the Highlands, forms had been produced in Polish, which had aided in encouraging them to enrol on the register.  In the Western Isles the results indicated a greater number than population estimates had suggested.  Although this would be investigated, it was suggested that this was as a result in a change of demographics in recent years showing an upward trend.

 

Elections

 

A significant amount of legislation had still to be finalised in advance of the election on 3 May 2007.  However, although “personal identifiers” for postal votes would not be required for this election, corresponding numbers were to be used to allow a register of returned votes to be maintained.  Elections generally would have to take priority for the Department over the next three months and Members were advised that this might affect other areas of work.

 

Council Tax

 

The future of Council Tax was still unclear, with the Scottish Executive still considering the Burt Commission report on local government finance.

 

Rating

 

A sitting of the Appeal Panel in December 2006 had disposed of a further 350 appeals and a further sitting was scheduled for February 2007.  It was anticipated that all appeals would have been dealt with by the target date of December 2008.

 

Thereafter the Board NOTED the report.

 

The meeting concluded at 11.20 a.m.